DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN AND PRACTICAL SKILLS OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Mustahsan Mir
Department of Electrical Engineering Ajman University of Science & Technology, UAE m.mir@ajman.ac.ae ABSTRACT: This paper describes a systematic approach for gradual development of design and practical skills of undergraduate engineering students. Starting with basic courses in an engineering discipline, students are required to learn and apply design concepts to course projects assigned by the instructors. The designed projects are then implemented and tested in the laboratory sessions. The complexity of such projects increases with the level of the course. Having obtained sufficient experience in course-based projects in basic courses, students take a completely projects-based course at junior level before proceeding to the capstone project in their final year. While the presented approach is applicable to all engineering disciplines, its application and educational effectiveness is described for Electrical Engineering (EE) discipline. Application of this approach to four EE courses that require course-based projects such as Electronic Devices and Circuits-I, Electronic Devices and Circuits-II, Instrumentation and Measurements, and Industrial Control Systems as well to a completely projects-based course namely Design with ICs is explained in detail. It is shown that the presented approach has been quite effective in developing and enhancing the design and practical skills of students and has significantly contributed in preparing them for their capstone projects in the final year. Keywords: Course projects; Projects-based courses; Design skills; Practical skills; Engineering education. INTRODUCTION Undergraduate engineering students are required to develop skills in designing, implementing, and testing a system or process to achieve the desired specifications. The importance of these skills has been further emphasized during the past decade or so with the introduction of EC2000 Criteria adopted by ABET [1]. As a result, students are now introduced to design concepts at an earlier stage and their design and practical skills are gradually developed throughout their undergraduate studies [2-6]. This is in contrast to the earlier approach where most of the design work was done at the senior level, primarily related to the capstone project. The significance of starting design at an earlier stage can be well understood by implementation of the Olin Curriculum [7] that follows the concept of design throughout from the day the students arrive on campus to the day they graduate. More common recent approaches introduce engineering students to projects-based courses at an early stage [8-10]. However, for gradual development of design and practical skills it is preferable that students start with some course-based projects during initial years of their undergraduate studies and at a later stage they take completely projects-based course(s) [11-12]. This paper, delivered as a plenary presentation, summarizes the experience gained over the past few years of gradually developing the design and practical skills of Electrical Engineering (EE) students at Ajman University of Science & Technology [10-12]. In some of the early EE courses with associated labs, students are required to design, implement, and test two or three course-related projects near the end of the semester when they have gained reasonable experience through traditional laboratory experiments during most part of the semester. Subsequently, in the final semester of their junior year, students take a completely projects-based course Design with ICs to further develop their design and practical skills. In this course there are absolutely no traditional laboratory sessions and instead students implement, troubleshoot, and test their own design work during each laboratory session. It is shown that such a combination of course-based projects followed by a completely projects-based course has not only gradually enhanced the desired skills but has also contributed in developing students self-confidence in their acquired skills. As such, they are well-prepared for their capstone project in the final year.

2. RATIONALE OF COURSE-BASED PROJECTS

Considering the significance of outcome-based teaching and learning, the teaching methodologies adopted for achieving the desired outcomes must develop students interest in a subject, motivate them to learn on their own, provide them hands-on experience where needed, and boost their confidence through successful accomplishment of assigned tasks. Inclusion of practical course projects in certain courses is an effective

methodology to achieve these outcomes. Some of the advantages of introducing course projects involving design and practical implementation to complement the traditional laboratory experiments are as follows [11]: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Project design enhances the comprehension of the subject matter covered in the theoretical class. Implementation and troubleshooting of projects improves the practical skills of students. Course projects help develop the analytical and problem solving skills of students. Working on a course project helps in developing students' teamwork abilities. Presentation of course projects improves the communication skills of students. Successful completion of the course projects increases students' interest in the course as well as their self-confidence. Open-ended course projects enhance creative thinking. A series of courses with course projects prepare the students well for their capstone project.

2.1. Learning Outcomes of Course Projects For each course that requires course-based projects, learning outcomes must be defined. For instance, the intended learning outcomes for students designing, implementing, troubleshooting, and presenting the course projects of industrial control systems course are defined as follows [11]: 1) An ability to utilize appropriate sensors/transducers for a given application. 2) An ability to design signal-conditioning circuits for the given sensors/transducers. 3) An ability to design and interface appropriate input/output circuits to a PLC. 4) An ability to program a PLC for achieving the desired operations. 5) An ability to design Proportional, PI, and PID controllers, using electronic components, for given requirements of an industrial process controller. 6) An ability to troubleshoot hardware and software. 7) An ability to work as member of a project team. 8) An ability to make effective presentations. 2.2. Sample Course Projects In order to illustrate the idea of gradual development of design and practical skills of EE students through course projects from sophomore to junior level, some representative course projects are summarized below for four different courses. 2.2.1: Electronic Devices and Circuits-I Project 1: Design, implement, and test a regulated DC power supply using a transformer, bridge rectifier, capacitor, and three-terminal regulator IC. Your power supply design shall be for specifications as given to individual teams. Project 2: Design, simulate, implement, and test the following two circuits using BJTs: a) A BJT switch that will turn-on an LED if the input voltage Vin X Volts. b) A CE Amplifier using voltage-divider biasing circuit with voltage supply VCC, Q-point voltage VCEQ of about VCC/2, and Gain of G. 2.2.2: Electronic Devices and Circuits-II Project 1: Design a circuit that will sound a beeper if the room temperature is more than 25 C. You will use LM35 as temperature sensor. The op-amps provided to you are LM741. The reference voltage will be obtained by using a zener diode with VZ = 2.0 V. Take IZ = 10 mA for your design. Project 2: Design a circuit using 555 Timer IC that will generate a square wave with a frequency of 5 KHz and duty cycle of 60%. Also, design an active low-pass filter (2nd-order) to obtain sine-wave of fundamental frequency from the square wave generated by the 555 Timer IC. Project 3: Design a multi-stage FET amplifier for specifications given to individual teams. You will also design an oscillator to provide input to your multi-stage amplifier. For additional bonus points, make a working PCB for the complete circuit.

2.2.3: Instrumentation and Measurements Project 1: Each team is assigned a project about multi-range electrical meters using PMMC (Permanent Magnet Moving Coil) meters. Students are responsible for carrying out measurements to determine the parameters of the given PMMC such as full-scale deflection current and coil resistance. They will then design the assigned voltmeter or ammeter for the specified multiple ranges. They implement their meters in the laboratory, calibrate their scales, and demonstrate their measurement accuracy. They also submit a technical report explaining the design and test results. Project 2: In this project, students design and develop electronic instruments for measurement of temperature, strain, etc. using appropriate sensors. The display of measured parameters, once again, is by virtue of PMMC pointer on calibrated scales. In contrast to the first project, students now learn to select the appropriate sensor and utilize it in designing and implementing measuring instruments with operational amplifiers. A temperaturemeasuring instrument developed by a student team in this course is shown in Fig. 1 [12].

Fig. 1: An electronic temperature meter 2.2.4: Industrial Control Systems Project 1: For this discrete-state control project, the main requirements were given as follows [11]. Design, implement, and test a model industrial control system using PLC. Your system shall have well-defined sequence of events that would at least require the following: START and STOP pushbuttons 2 to 3 sensors 1 to 2 actuators/control elements/indicators Some time delay operation A counting operation

This general statement of the project was purposely given to encourage the students to come up with different projects while satisfying the given requirements. A total of 8 projects were developed by the student teams. They all used Mitsubishi FX0 series PLC. For programming, they developed ladder diagrams using the onscreen tools menu. For each project, student teams studied an industrial control system and developed a somewhat simplified model of that system using various kinds of sensors, limit switches, heaters, pumps, motors, fans, solenoids, valves, pushbuttons and indicator lamps. Signal conditioning circuits, where needed, were also designed and implemented by the project teams. Similarly, for electronic limit switches student teams designed and developed their own circuits. It was encouraging to observe how some teams developed their own conveyor belts for some of the projects. All the projects were successfully completed, but in many cases students had to spend many extra hours to accomplish all the objectives of the project. A picture of one sample project is shown in Figure 2. Project 2: Each team was asked to design, implement, and test either a PI or PID controller using op-amps for a continuous-time control problem such as a PI controller for controlling the speed of a fan based on the measured value of temperature. All student teams completed the assigned projects for given specifications.

Fig. 2: An industrial control project

3. PROJECTS-BASED COURSE
Unlike the above-mentioned courses that include two or three course-based projects besides the traditional experiments conducted in the laboratory, a projects-based course does not include any traditional laboratory sessions for carrying out pre-defined experiments based on given handouts. Instead, each team of students, comprising of 3-4 students, is assigned five to six different projects during the semester. The projects are assigned to the teams after relevant topics have been covered in the class. Each project is designed, implemented, and tested to evaluate its performance as per given requirements. In addition to the common goal of developing design and practical skills, each project has additional goals related to the course material. It may be mentioned here that after the design had been completed and tested by simulation, where applicable, students had two laboratory sessions (in two weeks) to implement their design on breadboard, test it, and carry out troubleshooting as needed. They were required to demonstrate the working of the complete project satisfying all design specifications. A laboratory engineer was always available to guide the students in troubleshooting and checking complete working of the project as per specifications. During their work in the laboratory, students were also asked related questions to further develop their understanding of the project and, in particular, to enhance their troubleshooting skills. Besides their design, implementation, and troubleshooting skills, students were also evaluated regarding the information they had gained through data sheets, reference books, websites, etc. so as to develop their life-long learning abilities. They wrote technical report for each project completed in this course. However, for only one of the projects they were required to make an oral presentation using Power Point. This helped in developing their communication skills. Also, project planning and teamwork were emphasized. Some sample projects, gradually increasing in complexity, are summarized below [10]. Project 1: Design, implement, and test a circuit that will work as follows: a) If the room temperature is less than 25 C, a green LED shall become ON. b) If the room temperature is between 25 C and 30 C, a 12V fan will become ON. c) If the room temperature is more than 30 C, a red LED shall flash at a frequency of 2 Hz with a dutycycle of 60 %. For this project, you will use the temperature sensor LM35, the timer IC 555, open-collector comparator ICs (LM311 or LM339), a relay, LEDs, a fan and other components, as needed. Project 2: You are working in an engineering company and for their next product the manager has decided to develop a digital temperature meter that can measure and display room temperature. In the first phase of this project, you will design, implement, and test a circuit that will interface your temperature sensor (LM35) to the input of an 8-bit A/D converter. For this phase, the design specifications are as follows: 1) The room temperature is in the range of 15 C to 40 C. 2) The supply and reference voltages of the 8-bit A/D converter are both 5 V. 3) If the temperature exceeds 40 C, a beeper shall sound for 10 seconds. Project 3: You have been hired by a new company that plans to pack 12 bottles of mineral water in each cardboard box. These bottles are passed, one by one, on a conveyor belt which is started by a push-button. You have been assigned the task of developing a digital system that will automatically count and display the number of passing bottles on two 7-segment LEDs. When 12 bottles have been counted, the conveyor belt shall automatically stop. Design, implement, and test the complete counting and display system for this company. Since the conveyor belt is not available in the lab, you will test your system by passing manually some other

item between I/R transmitter and detector. One of the projects designed by a student team is shown in Fig. 3 below. Its implementation is shown in Fig. 4.

Figure 3: Design of Project 3 by a student team

Figure 4: An implementation of Project 3 Project 4: Using PIC16F877, ADC0804, LM35 and other ICs/components, design a Digital Thermometer to measure and display the room temperature on two 7-segment displays with a resolution of 1C. Also, a 220V Heater should switch ON if the temperature falls below 20C. If the temperature rises again to 20C or more, the Heater should switch OFF. You shall use MOC3010 optocoupler triac driver and an external triac with sufficient current rating to switch ON/OFF the Heater. Project 5: Design a digital voltmeter (DVM) for measuring DC voltage in the range of 0 to 9.9 V. A DVM designed and implemented by one student team is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5: A digital voltmeter (DVM)

4.

EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

In order to determine the effectiveness of Course-Based Projects (CBPs) an evaluation questionnaire was developed for the industrial control system course and distributed to 27 students who took this course. A total of 24 responses were obtained. A similar questionnaire was distributed to students who took the Projects-Based Course (PBC) Design with ICs. In this case, a total of 61 responses were received. For each statement in the evaluation questionnaire, students were asked to choose from Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Agree, and Agree. The results of these two surveys are summarized in Table I. As none of responses included any "Strongly Disagree" option, this column is not shown in the table. Also, except for statement #4, that was not included in the questionnaire for CBPs, all other statements are identical in both surveys. An analysis of the results obtained from students' feedback is presented in the following. Table I: Students response to evaluation questionnaires Strongly Agree (%)
CBPs PBC

No.

STATEMENT

Agree (%)
CBPs PBC

Disagree (%)
CBPs PBC

After completing the course projects, I better understand the related theoretical topics of the course. Course projects have improved my design skills. Implementation of course projects improved my practical skills. Course projects helped me improve my troubleshooting skills. The extra effort required by course projects is worth the experience gained through the projects. I feel more confident now to design and implement a practical project. The laboratory experiments alone are not sufficient to provide the required confidence and experience. Team members learned and benefited from the knowledge and experience of one another. I found the course projects highly beneficial.

62

59

38

41

2 3 4 5

58 54 --38

69 69 41 34

42 46 --50

29 28 52 61

0 0 --12

2 3 7 5

6 7

42 21

34 36

50 71

59 57

8 8

7 7

33

39

54

53

13

54

64

42

36

A study of the students response makes it quite clear that both the course-based projects (CBPs) and the projects-based course (PBC) have made significant contribution in developing their design and practical skills. For CBPs, all students either agreed or strongly agreed that course projects improved their design and practical skills. For PBC, an overwhelming majority of 98% students agreed or strongly agreed about improvement in their design skills while 97% students had a similar response about improvement of practical skills. Also, 93% students indicated improvement in their troubleshooting skills. Furthermore, there is unanimous agreement that course projects helped them better understand the related course topics. It may also be noted that a vast majority

of students agreed that course projects had improved their confidence in designing and implementing practical projects. It is quite encouraging to observe that for the projects-based course all students, without any exception, found course projects highly beneficial. For CBPs, this number is 96% clearly indicating the usefulness of course projects. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that significantly large number of students believed that extra effort required for completing course projects (in contrast with traditional experiments based on handouts) was worth the experience gained through these projects. Somewhat similar percentage of students agreed that laboratory experiments alone were not sufficient to provide the required confidence and experience. The presented results clearly demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of the projects-based approach adopted by the EE Department at AUST for gradual development of students design and practical skills. 6. CONCLUSION This paper has highlighted the significance of course projects in gradually and systematically developing the design and practical skills of EE students. Starting from sophomore level, students are required to do course projects in some core courses. In these course-based projects (CBPs), student teams design, simulate, implement, and troubleshoot the assigned projects. The complexity of these projects increases in accordance with the level of the courses. Subsequently, in the second semester of their junior year, they take a completely projects-based course (PBC) that requires design and implementation of projects throughout the semester. Analysis of students' feedback for both CBPs and PBC has clearly indicated the effectiveness of course projects in achieving the intended outcomes. In addition to developing their design and practical skills, the course projects helped the students improve their understanding of related theoretical topics and increased their confidence level in designing and implementing practical projects. They also helped develop generic skills such as presentation skills, planning skills and team work. While the course projects demanded extra time and effort from the students, it was encouraging to note that an overwhelming majority of students had indicated that the extra effort was worth the experience gained though these projects. REFERENCES [1] http://www.abet.org [2] H. Rehman, R. A. Said, and Y. Al-assaf, An Integrated Approach for Strategic Development of Engineering Curricula: Focus on Students Design Skills, IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 470-481, Nov. 2009. [3] L. G. Huettel et al., Fundamentals of ECE: A Rigorous, Integrated Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering, IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 174-181, Aug. 2007. [4] M. L. Jacobson, R. A. Said, and H. Rehman, Introducing Design Skills at the Freshman Level: Structured Design Experience, IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 247-253, May 2006. [5] F. G. Hayati, and M. Mir, "Enhancement of Technical-cum-Generic Skills Through Design Experience in Laboratories," Proceedings of the Fifth Intl. Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training, pp. 668-671, May 31-June 2, 2004, Turkey. [6] R. L. Traylor, D. Heer, and T. S. Fiez, Using an Integrated Platform for Learning to Reinvent Engineering Education, IEEE Trans. Education, vol. 46, pp. 409-419, Nov. 2003. [7] M. Somerville et al., The Olin Curriculum: Thinking Toward the Future, IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 198-205, Feb. 2005. [8] C.S. Lee, et. al., A Project-Based Laboratory for Learning Embedded System Design with Industry Support, IEEE Trans. Education, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 173-181, May 2010. [9] DeLyser, R. R., Quine, R. W., Rullkoetter, P. J., and Armentrout, A Sophomore Capstone Course in Measurement and Automated Data Acquisition, IEEE Trans. Education, Vol. 47, pp. 453-458, Nov. 2004. [10] Mustahsan Mir, Development of Design, Implementation, and Troubleshooting Skills of EE Students, Proceedings of the 5th Intl Forum on Engineering Education (IFEE2010), UAE, Nov. 2010. [11] Mustahsan Mir, "Contribution of Design Projects in Enhancing the Outcome of Industrial Control System Course", 3rd AUS International Symposium on Mechatronics, American University of Sharjah, UAE, April 18-20, 2006. [12] Mustahsan Mir, Projects-Based Evolutionary Approach for Developing Practical Skills in Measurement and Data Acquisition, Proceedings of EduLEARN09 Conference, Spain, July 2009.